From Hogwarts to Strixhaven.

Chapter 262 Shadows in the Forest (1000010000)

The next morning, the dwarves put out the embers in the campfire, packed their luggage and prepared to set off.

The entrance to the forest is formed by two rows of towering trees. The elves planted them deliberately when they built this road. Now these trees have grown up, and their tall crowns are connected above the path, looking like one lush green arch after another.

"This forest doesn't seem so scary after all!" The dwarves were very excited, thinking that the scenery they saw last night was just a self-deception, and they were frightened by the tone of Gandalf and Beorn.

The sunlight shines through the lush branches and leaves overhead, forming spots of light on the trail. Although it is called the Black Forest, the visibility along the way is actually quite good.

"Squirrel!" Bilbo saw a squirrel with black stripes on its back jump across the path and disappear in the blink of an eye.

The dwarves also smiled. Since there were other animals living in the forest, it meant that it was not as scary as they imagined. Maybe there were really dangerous dark creatures, such as the big spiders Gandalf had mentioned, but their sphere of influence had not yet covered the entire forest.

So every member of the expedition team continued to move forward with a picnic mentality. They talked about the happy days after regaining the lonely mountain. Someone suggested trying to sleep on gold like the dragon. Then he was laughed at by everyone.

"You will definitely catch a cold!" said the dwarf who had experience in smelting gold. "Gold has a very good thermal conductivity. Even if you are wrapped in a cotton coat, sleeping on it will not be any better than sleeping on ice."

As the expedition went deeper into the Black Forest, the conversations among the expedition team gradually stopped.

Instead, there was some even stranger movement, coming from the trees, from the branches that filtered through the sunlight, and from behind the expedition.

There was a sound of grunting, scratching, and something heavy being dragged along the ground.

At the same time, the trees in the Black Forest were no longer lush green as before, but black with heavy shadows. The stone paths under their feet began to become winding, winding between tree roots and raised rocks, with many yellow leaves spread on them. The dwarves could only tap the ground with the handles of their weapons from time to time to make sure they were still on the right path.

Thick spider webs hung between the treetops, some dangling along the sides of the road, and some covering almost the entire treetops. But for some reason, the trail under the expedition team's feet was not covered by spider webs.

This made the expedition team believe that the road they were on was still safe, but even so, the situation in the Black Forest did not get better.

The air seemed to stop flowing, and the smell of decay and staleness filled everyone's lungs, as if the trees no longer produced oxygen for people to breathe, but instead exhaled poisonous gas that could suffocate people.

But there was one person in the expedition team who was never affected at all. Who else could it be except Ivy, the master of black magic?

This dark forest was as reassuring to him as returning home. The only thing he had to restrain was the urge to use dark magic.

The streams here were filled with death and the air was filled with decay. Ivy knew very well that his dark magic from the world of Harry Potter would be effective here and would be strengthened as never before.

Ivy must resist the urge to do a chain-killing trick, using powerful dark magic in a world where light will eventually triumph is as hilarious as joining the National Army in 49.

Ivy was so focused on fighting herself that she didn't notice the other members of the expedition.

They were very tired and could not sleep well at night because the darkness would swallow everyone, and the bonfire would attract countless moths and insects. The sound of their flapping wings made it difficult to fall asleep, and the smell after falling into the flames was also nauseating. So the expedition team had to let the darkness spread among them. "We need to cross the river in front of us!" Bilbo knelt on the river bank. When I didn't count Evie, the Hobbit's senses were actually the expedition team's reliance in this forest.

"The water is black." Thorin also stared at the rushing river in front of him. He remembered Gandalf's instructions, "That means we can't risk crossing the river, nor can we try to drink it."

"But we need to go across, the bridge is broken!" Doli said, pulling his beard, he looked eager to try.

"There's a ship over there!" cried Bilbo. "Why isn't it on our side?"

"Wizard!" Thorin shouted. "We need your help! Wizard!"

"What?" Ivy, who was riding on the back of the Golden Horn, woke up with a start. He had been deducing black magic in his mind and was completely immersed in it. If he couldn't perform black magic in Alda, he might as well indulge in it in his mind. In fact, Ivy was completely awake, but he focused most of his attention elsewhere.

He had already thought of a brilliant black magic spell in his mind and was sure it would work. Now all Ivy needed was a victim, or a group of victims.

But Thorin had interrupted his thoughts, so Ivy looked around and immediately understood the expedition's current predicament: "We need to cross the river? Do you have any suggestions?"

"Bilbo sees a wooden boat on the other side of the river," answered Thorin. "If you can get it here..."

"Oh, there's a risk of falling into the water if we take a boat. I think maybe we can take a more direct approach." Ivy raised his staff and began to prepare to cast a spell.

"But the bridge is broken. Are you going to let us fly over it?" Balin asked puzzledly, "Like we did on the cliff before?"

"Watch this." Ivy's staff drew an arc in the air, and the trees on both sides of the river changed immediately. They cut themselves down, and then were split into various wooden parts by an invisible force and reassembled in the air.

In just a few minutes, a wooden bridge was rebuilt over the dark river.

"You didn't even use nails!" Ollie asked, "How did you do that?"

The spell used to make a bridge is the fourth-ring transmutation spell, Divine Craftsmanship, which can turn unprocessed raw materials into finished products. Normally, if you want to use Divine Craftsmanship to make a solid wooden bridge, you must provide a certain amount of iron as a connecting structure, or use vines to turn into ropes, but Ivy used a mortise and tenon structure at the connection of the wooden bridge, so the friction alone can support each other to form a bridge that can be used for people to pass.

"Come on!" Young Qili was the first to cross the bridge and was already standing on the other side waving.

So the dwarves put aside their doubts and crossed the river of black water in front of them one by one.

This incident boosted the morale of the dwarves, whose morale had hit rock bottom, and even their movements became much faster.

　I'm about to start talking nonsense...

　　
　
(End of this chapter)